It’s hard to not love such an earthy groove.
Broken Bells, the collaborative project between producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse and The Shins’ James Mercer, only pops up every so often, with long gaps between their releases. Their last album was 2014’s After the Disco. But they’ve kept the Broken Bells name out in the blogosphere with a few unattached singles in the intervening years. Now comes another great new song, the fuzzed-out “Good Luck.”
The song keeps the duo’s dedication to rhythm found on their last record intact. It’s built on buzzing guitars and a grounded, pulsing bass riff. But as always with Broken Bells, the more you listen, the more of the tune you uncover and love. There are the pounding keys of what sounds like a Vox Continental organ, the moment where Mercer’s voice is joined by a children’s choir, and touches of descending atmospherics, like a UFO powering down. Let’s hope there’s a new album on the way, because this track is too good to use as a one-off.
“Good Luck” is out now.